how to make 150 cake pops for your friends’ wedding

Do you remember that time I made 150 cake pops in my shoebox a.k.a. my kitchen?

Do you also remember that time that I had never made one single cake pop and decided that my first attempt should include one hundred and fifty to be given away as favors at my friends’ wedding.

It’s okay – we can all laugh now at the ridiculousness of how I didn’t think I needed a test round. This is a happy story!

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are going to make more than one dozen cake pops for a wedding where actual people will be enjoying them – then this post is for you. I am here to tell you that you can do it and it will all be fine.

It was an absolute honor to be involved in the wedding of my dear friends and to be able to give the gift of baking to everyone at the celebration.

Baking makes [married] friends!

I learned a few things along the way. The most important being organization. Make lists. Try to anticipate all the scenarios that you are going to encounter on your journey. Clean out your fridge. Buy supplies. Go back and get more chocolate after you wake up in the middle of the night thinking that four pounds of white chocolate just won’t be enough. Chart out a timeline and work backwards.

In my case the cake pops were being picked up Thursday. I did supply shopping on Monday. Food shopping (did I mention that I made everything from scratch!) on Tuesday. A bit of unanticipated wine-drinking happened on Wednesday night but I didn’t let that stand in the way of the schedule so I baked five cakes beginning at 11:43 p.m. I woke up on Thursday at 8:07 a.m. for My Big Day (cake poppin’ of course).

The tipsy baking actually turned out pretty well. Homemade red velvet cake made in three batches and made in various bakeware: one 9×13 pan, two 9-inch rounds, and two 8×8 squares.

Before I get to far along – perhaps you are unfamiliar with cake pops? A cake pop is a fully cooked cake, mixed with frosting, rolled into balls, stuck on a stick and dipped in chocolate. I have been gazing from afar for a long time but I have a whole new level of respect for The Queen of Cake Pops. Like major.

Batch by batch I processed the fully cooled cake in the food processor which made things super quick. Three batches = three large bowls. Set ‘em up. Knock ‘em down! Mix 1 cup of cream cheese frosting into each bowl using the back of a spoon. Start shaping one bowl and let the remaining two bowls chill in your fridge.

I used a tablespoon-sized scoop to measure out the cake, rolled it into a ball, then placed it on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. You should get 50 cake balls per batch of cake. Rolled balls go in the fridge, another bowl comes out and continue until all the bowls magically turn into sheet pans of cake balls.

After all the balls are formed, they get popped onto a stick and dipped in chocolate. Melt chocolate in a medium bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. To get the light orange color, I melted together one pound of orange and one pound of white candy melts. It takes a while to melt two pounds of chocolate so use this time to get everything set up.

I purchased a foam block and poked holes in it to use as a makeshift drying rack. I also found this amazing contraption for $3.99, which literally saved my life as I found you need a station for drying (post-dip) and storing upright (post-drizzle and pre-wrap).

After the balls had chilled on the sheet pans for a few hours, I transferred them to a glass baking pan and stored it in the fridge. I’d take out a handful at a time and let them warm up on a plate before giving them a quick re-roll (to make sure they were round and smooth) and then dipping in chocolate.

Set up your dipping station: melted chocolate, sticks, and a drying rack.

First dip the stick into chocolate then then insert in to the ball. This ensures that the stick will stay where it needs to and also makes the point where the chocolate surrounds the stick extra pretty.

Once the stick is in, dip the pop straight down into the chocolate and tilt the pop back and forth so the whole ball is covered. Gently shake off the extra chocolate and allow it to drip back into the bowl. Carefully transfer to the drying rack. Repeat 149 times.

They will all look like this! Just kidding! While it is true that most of them will look like the above, cake pops are like pancakes and it takes a few tries to find your stride. But when you do you will become a cake pop machine. I found the dipping process to be soothing.

When the rack fills up – transfer to the drizzle station. In another makeshift double boiler, melt about 1/2 pound of white chocolate. Transfer melted chocolate to a plastic pastry bag, snipe a tiny bit of the end off and drizzle the top of each cake pop with white chocolate. Store the bag upright in a drinking glass so it will be ready for the next batch o’ drizzle.

Now is the time that you need a few friends to come over. Give them beer and snacks and it’ll be all good. While you are dippin’ n’ drizzlin’ and the cake pops are dryin’ you’ll need some help wrapping them up. Tiny plastic bags go over the cake, tie with a little ribbon and a cute tag.

The chocolate shell dries hard but – just in case – I kept them flat until they were ready to be boxed up.

Make sure you have several big boxes to carry them in because let me tell you, cake pops may seem tiny but when they are wrapped up you will need more space then you think.

And then all of a sudden it is time to put on a party dress and you show up and – look! – they are there, sitting pretty at each place setting! Just a tiny part of a spectacular wedding but I was so very honored to have a part in the celebration. Congratulations Dana and Eric! xoxo

Wowowowowowow, assa a lorra lorra work. (That much work + that steep a learning curve causes me to lose my grasp on spelling + grammar.) You are such a star! Your friends must have been thrilled with the result – light orange has never looked so chic! Congratulations on making your way through 150 (ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY!) cake pops; I mean, wow, when you pop your baking cherry, you really go for it! (Please excuse the fact that I have ended every single sentence with an exclamation mark; refer to the 2nd sentence for an explanation.)

Wow! What a process! They turned out so cute and delicious looking. It seems like finding the right packaging materials is the hardest part. I think my first cake pop experience will be on a smaller scale!

You are a cake pop SUPERSTAR! I’m sure Dana was thrilled–she’s so lucky to be friends with the world’s greatest food blogger (says Saveur and I) who’s willing to do this. Also, this reminds me of the time we went to Woodside, Queens, to visit the world’s worst David’s Bridal, and made a side journey of picking up supplies for this very venture, three or so years ago.

Hi Amanda! The wedding was on a Saturday so I made the cake on Wednesday, then rolled and decorated all the cake pops on Thursday. They were refrigerated (completely assembled and wrapped) until they had to make the drive (2 hours) up to the wedding. Then they were refrigerated on-site until the caterers placed one at each setting. I would think they would even be fine for a few more days if they were stored in the fridge. Hope this helps!

These are amazing!! About how much did it cost to create these? Also, is there anywhere special you bought the colored chocolate to melt? I’ve never seen any like that, but I also don’t do much baking LOL!

Hi Lillie! These look great! Two quick questions… How did you get such perfect shapes for your cake balls? Did you roll them or use some sort of scoop? Also, how early can you make them and how long can they stay packaged? I need 100 by Tuesday and am making them today. Can I package them and leave them out or do they need to go in the fridge and wait to be packaged until Monday?

Hi Ashley! I used a small tablespoon-sized scoop to evenly portion out the dough then rolled them into balls and placed them on a baking sheet in the fridge to chill. Right before dipping (and after they had chilled for a while/firmed up) I re-rolled them to make sure they were extra round and smooth. Re: packaging, I wrapped and packed them up the same day I made them all then stored them all ready to go in the fridge until they were ready to be served. I would recommend packing them the day you make them because I found they were easier to store with the plastic covering the finished cake pops, rather then having them all stacked together without being wrapped. If you make them today (Saturday) they should be a-ok to be served by Tuesday! Hope this helps! Happy baking!!

Thank you so much for this blog! Amazing! I am looking at doing this as favours for my wedding in October and you have definitely put my mind at ease- even made it look relatively easy. I think I may do a small batch as a trial run though… Im not sure I trust my green poppin’ skills to get it right first go! Thanks

I designed the square tags in photoshop and then had them printed into 2×2 squares at Uprinting.com. The other tags were from my friend getting married but I seem to remember that she found them on Etsy. Hope this helps! Happy baking!

Hello!
Your pops look amazing. My sister in law is doing same for our wedding in Oct. Any major suggestions ? And where do you recommend purchasing a standing cooling rack (as shown in your photo) because we usually use Styrofoam blocks :/

My big suggestion is to give yourself a few days. You can make the cake one day, roll it the next, and then dip and package on the day before you want to to serve them. Also, having a few people really helps. Here is a link to the stand. Happy baking!

This has and will help me so much. I’m making 160 cake pops for my wedding as the cake for the guests. I was wondering if I package the pops and have them in the refrigerator the day before the wedding will they sweat when I take them out and have the display set up? How do I make sure they don’t sweat and look gross?

I’m curious what the font was that you used on your name tags…could you send it to me or tell me where to get it…thanks…you’re a brave girl making 150 cake pops with no experience…my biggest problem is getting the right size and dipping them where they look perfectly smooth…LOVE YOURS!

Hi Peggy! I’m sorry to not be more helpful but my friend supplied the tags (I was just providing the cake pops) so I’m unsure of the font. The only thing that I know is she found them on Etsy. Cheers, Lillie